Chapter 31 If after all of this...
~Haven.
The drive back to Walter’s was as cold as ice. He’d refused to say anything else about the child I was carrying.And myself? I knew I needed to figure it out. What I was going to tell dad about who the father of the child was.
Walter pulled over, stepping out of the car without sparing me a glance. I followed him in with my legs dragging against the ground; the evening breeze hit my skin. Hard.
Walter pushed the door open and Hannah? She sat on the living room couch.. Her eyes threw darts. She was obviously waiting for Walter to get back.
“You haven’t been answering my calls,” she started.
“Haven was at the hospital,” he said. “And so should you. Who let you leave? You look…..” he paused, as if refraining himself. “Quite sick,” he added.
“Like you care,” Hannah hissed. “You chose someone who is carrying a bastard over your own wife!”
Oh, fuck it.
“Don’t you dare, Hannah!” I yelled right back, taking a step closer.
Hannah burst out, laughing. Her eyes took s stroll around my body, each glare laced with mockery. “What? You do not know who the father is? Do you? Who don’t you just kill it?”
My head spun.
I stared at Hannah in awe. Acting all jealous and concerned about Walter being unavailable when she’s head over heels for the cook.
“Watch what you say to me, Hannah,” I was just about to walk away when her words sounded behind me. “The child is only going to end up twice a hoe.”
I paused. “What did you say?”
Hannah laughed, and for a second, Walter looked at me. His hand immediately caught mine before I could move.
“Harrington’s the father, Hannah,” Walter spoke and I paused. “At least she has a child, doesn’t she?”
Walter walked away without saying anything else and I watched Hannah’s face turn cold. I quietly walked back into the room, letting Walter’s words sit right.
I laid on the bed after a warm bath…and thought. Maybe Walter had plans. Who knows?
……
It was barely morning, but my eyes were forced open by the loud knocks that came from the door.
I rushed up to check who it was, and mom was standing at the entrance. She grabbed me by the arm and led me downstairs before I could say anything else.
Dad, Walter, Hannah, Harrington, and of course, the love of Hannah’s life; Mason. Everyone stood in the living room, each expression different from the next, but each one had their prying eyes on me.
“Good morning,” I managed to say… my brain kept lagging. I was still barely awake.
“Hannah told us what happened last night. You claimed Harrington owned your child, didn’t you?” mom asked.
Fuck.
I turned to look at Hannah. “How did you manage to be so loose mouthed,” I whispered.
“Answer the damned question, Haven,” dad thundered.
I halted, then my eyes slowly met Harrington’s, but his expression remained unreadable. What if I said yes, and Harrington denies it on the spot?
But if I say no, it automatically means I’d have to provide a father for the child. Only if they knew, that he was standing right next to them with my sister’s wedding ring on his finger.
“I…. i… I” I stuttered.
“Is this what all of this is about?” Harrington finally spoke. He stood, looking directly into father’s eyes.
I knew Harrington well, and his words could be quite untamed.
I immediately cut in.
“Harrington… you don’t have to say anything. They’re my family. Let me handle them.”
“And watch them insult you like this? When you’re carrying my child?” Harrington spoke and my heart dropped to my feet. I turned to look at Walter and he gave me a gentle nod.
I sighed- relieved, but not completely.
“You…you’re really the father?” Hannah asked.
“And do you have a problem with that, Mrs. Blake? You called me here very early this morning that there was something about Haven you needed me to know. Only to find out that you only wanted to….”
Dad didn’t let him finish. “Forgive us, Harrington. We are only trying to protect our daughter.”
I scoffed.
Harrington reached for me. His hands gently stroked my head as he placed a kiss on my forehead. “Just give me some time to settle things with my father, and I promise to come pick you up from here.”
I nodded, a part of me wishing this was true.
But the father of my child stood in front of me; hooked with another.
I looked at Harrington and forced a smile through my lips. He didn’t forget the dramatic kneel and the kiss on my belly before leaving.
“You’re lucky,” dad whispered under his breath before leaving with mom, while Mason led Hannah into her room.
“How did you get Harrington to agree to this?” I asked. Walter cleared his throat. “It doesn’t matter, does it? What matters is that I bought us time to think about that child. But for now, just play along,” he said.
“But for how long do we want to keep pretending that the child is Harrington’s? lies like this never end well, Walter.”
“Don’t think much about it,” he dismissed, again.
I sighed. “But I really cannot help it, Walter. Or can i? what if this whole issue escalates? His family finds out and they think they have an heir? Try to claim the child after he’s born but of course with a DNA test…then it comes out positive and again… I am the bad person? While you get to play the role of a good husband to Hannah?”
“Haven all these wouldn’t have happened if you didn’t…”
I didn’t let him finish. “If I didn’t give you a reason to doubt me in the first place?” I laughed. “I’m suddenly the bad person because I no longer wanted to fuck my sister’s husband, right?” I walked towards the stairs and maybe it was the way I moved but my leg hurt.
I halted, took deep breathe while I tried not to fall then I felt his hands wrapped around me.
Walter… Walter picked me up and carried me into the room. The whole time, my heart thumped, wondering whether he still loved me.
He laid me on the bed and Justas he was about to leave, he spoke. “If after you deliver and I find out that the child is mine, then I’ll get a divorce with Hannah and get married to you. I really do not care what anyone has to think but before then…make sure you’re safe, and make sure you’re not lying to me.”
Thud! He slammed the door behind him.